No Future: Director's Cut
by Seraina
Summary: The Irkens were ruthless, cold and efficient... But why do the Irkins fear Nny? Dib, Gaz, Squee, Devi and Tenna lead the revolution because they have No Future! Reedited for the fans that have praised the story recently.
1. Phase 1: Invasion Revised

By Seraina

Invader Zim, is owned by Viacom and Nickelodeon. Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Squee! and I Feel Sick are owned by Jhonen Vasquez.

Thanks to all the recent reviews and favoriting, I've decided to edit and rewrite all the chapters to add some more detail.

**No Future**

Phase 1: Invasion

_**"Dib-monkey…There's something horribly wrong!" - Zim **_

An age ago, long beyond the memories of even the old races, there was a Hole in the universe. The Hole was guarded by a complex system of checks and balances to keep the seal intact. Only the most powerful warriors were allowed in the vicinity of the Hole, and the Keepers were a force to be reckoned with indeed. But every sentient being can be tempted… tormented… and one of the creatures that lived Inside the Hole escaped.

The Creature snuck aboard a ship leaving the remote area of the galaxy where the Hole was located. It inhabited the mind of a powerful leader named Dremik and started a war that shook the entire power structure of the Central Worlds. The repercussions of this War leaked back to the planet that housed the Hole… and the Keepers mobilized to stop the force they had let loose.

The Keepers finally pushed the Creature and the infected Dremik back into nonexistence. Though the losses of such a long campaign wore thin… and a new Lock was created, fueled by the most powerful of substances. But even so, the Keepers were getting older and could no longer keep up with the changing universe. So they pooled their last remaining resources and…

…vanished.

The destruction of the economy done by the war and the absence of the Keepers created a power vacuum in the universe. One that let races like the Irkens conquer vast amounts the galaxy. But the Hole was still there… even if the rest of the universe forgot.

And unguarded, the Creatures inside the hole watched and waited… waited for the Irkens to conquer the spiral arm of the galaxy where the Hole resided.

But the Creatures grew impatient. They were dying inside of the Hole. They needed Escape. So they put a plan into action to let Dremik loose and carry the Creature's Queen to the universe. The Queen would seek out a powerful race and spread her new children into their minds. They could easily use Irken bodies as hosts to their advanced minds. The empire was just a foothold in the conquering of the rest of the universe.

And so far the plan was working flawlessly. The Queen had reached her destination…

She looked out through her host's red eyes at the flashing indicator on the instrument panel. A lone signal from Earth…

She smiled and her host smiled. "We will be taking the armada to Earth. We must free the others inside the Hole."

~No Future~

Dib was right. And unfortunately, so was Zim. The Irken armada was finally here and the _Massive_ could been seen from the ground without the aid of a telescope. All earth military were swatted away like flies. The alien army had already leveled the capitals of every major country. The Irkens were ruthless, cold and efficient at invading and Dib was shocked to say the least. Zim must have been the genetic failure of the race.

"Dib-monkey!" an annoyingly familiar voice shouted. Zim skidded to a halt, his wig crooked and GIR tucked under his arm. "There's something horribly wrong! Those… those aren't Irkens. They're something else. Something far older and far worse than anything I've ever seen before."

"What are you saying, Zim? Aren't they your people?" Dib asked, looking back up at the large armada hanging overhead.

"Yes and no," Zim said nervously, "I believe the armada was taken over by some sort of parasite… or…" the small alien stiffened and then quickly pulled the human behind a pile of rubble for cover. "We thought they were locked away, but they've taken over the Tallest and probably the entire Irken Empire! I-I have to go Dib-monkey. I-I have to save my Tallest!" Zim saluted Dib. And the small Irken ran off to parts unknown.

Dib thought that this would be the last time he would ever see Zim.

~No Future~

Dizzy. He blinked up at the white cracked ceiling. Upon further investigation, he found himself hooked up to an IV and a couple of beeping machines. It was then that he realized two things:

1 - That he was in a hospital-like place, and…

2 – His limbs felt heavy, sluggish, like he was in a vat of molassas.

He figured that he was strapped down and drugged, but how? How did he get there? "What the fuck is going on?" he said in a harsh dry whisper. His mind started racing, _I can't be caught. I can't be caught and I can't die, but maybe, I can be hurt…real bad._

_Was I knocked around by an intended victim?_

_No._

_Did the house collapse?_

_No._

_Did I fail to kill myself again?_

_NO!_

Then a tall green creature came into his sight. Okay, this is new, he thought to himself. "Hello, Earthling. Welcome to your invasion. Or should I say, 'welcome to our invasion of your world'. I must say you pitiful beings put up quite a fight. It was adorable for the first day, but then it just got really boring. Don't worry! It'll all be over soon."

"Okay Mr.-Alien-Invader-Man, why am I here? Shouldn't I be, I don't know, taken control of or killed mercilessly or something equally horrible?" he asked.

"Well, we were going to and all, but you're quite dangerous Mr. C," the alien said with a chuckle- an alien chuckle.

"Oh, so you know about the whole killing-people-and-painting-a-possessed-wall-with-blood thing," Johnny C sighed and tugged half-heartedly at the restraints. "If I'm so dangerous, then why am I here on your ship?" Nny asked the alien he dubbed in his mind as "Purple". The alien turned its large green head and revealed a bright throbbing vein attached to its head. The vein pulsed and glowed spookily. Johnny wanted to touch it since it didn't seem to belong on the alien's bald head.

"Well, if you were loose and felt like foiling our master plans, you could probably destroy us. But nothing to worry about, we've got a nice little hole to put you in. Nobody would ever think to look for you there... if there are any humans left to look for you," Purple replied.

"Oh." Johnny sighed, wondering what hell he'd end up in next.

~No Future~

Todd Casil had been abducted by aliens before. But he never saw anything like this. The alien army swept the countryside and practically burned everything. His parents were nowhere to be found, and he was hiding in the scary tunnel that led from the neighbor's house to his basement. Squee ran deeper into the darkness, his flashlight swaying from side to side. Shmee urged him deeper into the dark levels of basement of the small and creepy shack next door.

"Shmee, I'm scared. What if they find us? What if the scary neighbor-man finds us?" the little boy asked his teddy bear.

_You'll know what to do. But that horrible man isn't even here. You can hide here for as long as you have to_, the bear said from inside Squee's head.

"Squee!" said Todd as he neared one of the neighbor's more inventive torture devices. Thankfully, it was unoccupied.

~No Future~

Gaz allowed herself to be pulled along by her brother. She knew that this was the end of the world. She also knew that their house wasn't safe anymore. Their father's lab downtown had been destroyed. They were alone, and they had to make it to someplace safe. Normally she would be okay with this, as she'd often thought she would bring about the destruction of all humanity... but somehow this was all too real. Seeing the aliens systematically hunt down her race had turned her off of genocide.

It seemed like they had been running for hours. "Dib, stop," she growled. She pulled her arm away from her brother before he pulled her shoulder out of its socket. She ducked behind an overturned dumpster and Dib crawled into the hiding spot next to her.

"We can't stop, Gaz. Not until we find someplace more permanent to hide!" he answered in a harsh whisper, sticking his head out to look at the many destroyed houses in the area.

"Stop Devi! Spooky is getting tired!" said a a woman trying to keep up with her friend. Gaz watched Dib as he waved them over to their meager cover.

"Hey! Um… do you two know of a safe place?" he asked, searching the goth's face for sympathy.

"There's this place I know of… well, it's a dump and if we don't get killed when we get there, we can hide out there," the woman with purple hair said, crouching behind the temporary haven the Membrain siblings created. "I'm Devi, this is Tenna."

"I'm Dib and this is my sister, Gaz. What do you mean 'if we don't get killed when we get there'?" he asked tiredly.

Devi bit her lip. "Well, they way I see it, they only destroy places that look like somebody lives there. This place looks as run down as you can get. The guy that lives there… well, he tried to kill me once."

"What if he's still there?" Dib asked nervously.

"Then I'll have to kick his ass again."

~No Future~

After hours of searching through the darkness, Squee finally reached the ground floor of the house. Shmee told him to be careful. Squee hid behind the old couch in the living room (if one could even call it that). He could hear hushed voices at the door. He let out a bloodcurdling Squee as somebody kicked the door in.

"SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Todd had jumped about six feet in the air when four figures entered the shack.

"Easy kid, we're not going to hurt you. What's your name?" a nice-looking lady with pigtails asked him. She knelt down beside him and smiled.

"M-my name is Todd, but everyone calls me Squee," he said, clutching Shmee tightly.

"My dame is Devi. Over there is Tenna, Dib and Gaz. Where's Johnny? Is he here?" she asked nervously.

"Mr. Scary-Neighbor Man isn't here. I haven't seen him for a while. He told me he was going on vacation and then he bludgeoned my dad," Squee said looking at the floor. A small part of him was glad Johnny was gone, but now he missed him. As strange as that was, he missed the only adult that seemed to care if he existed.

"Good. We're going to stay here with you Squee. I know Johnny has a big basement that we can hide in," Devi said, standing up.

Squee looked at her with wide spooky eyes, "You have no idea."

~No Future~

"Wow, this place is amazing!" Dib said as they reached the fourth level of basements.

"It's not very soundproof up here, but the further you go down, the less the sound carries up above," Squee said as he led the way through the maze. Dib couldn't believe their luck. If they hadn't found Devi and Tenna, they would have probably been killed by the Irkens by now.

"What does this thing do?" Tenna asked as she inspected a rather interesting piece of torture equipment.

"You strap the victim in there vertically and those straps rip him to strips," Gaz answered and went back to playing her Game Slave 2, which she still had with her. What scared the rest of them the most is that she sounded like she was talking about breakfast, not torture equipment. At least she was playing the game again. He'd been a little freaked out during their initial escape when she held onto him.

"That's really sick, Gaz. But this place is great. We can use it for our headquarters," Dib said enthusiastically. He just needed to get things rolling... then they'd have a proper resistance.

"Headquarters?" Squee asked meekly.

"Yeah, the rebellion! We have to fight back" Dib answered, his trench coat flapping in an imaginary wind.

"But what can we do?" Devi asked, "They have the technology, the army, the ammo and we have a paranormal enthusiast, a gamer, a kid, an artist and… Tenna," Devi said, sitting on a box of nails. Why were there so many nails?

"Look guys, we can't just let them take over. We have to stop the injustice. We have to fight for our very right to live!" Dib said, assuming the "hero" pose as he babbled on.

Gaz just walked into the deeper parts of the basement. Squee followed her. Eventually Devi gave up on Dib's speech as well.

"This is the day that we shall proclaim our freedom!" Dib finished with a flourish.

Tenna clapped and squeaked Spooky a few times.

"Thank you. Thank… hey wait up guys!" Dib said, running after Gaz, Squee and Devi. Tenna shrugged and followed. Well, it'll take some time...


	2. Interlude 1: Solitude and Batteries

Interlude 1 – Solitude and Batteries

"_**Gaz couldn't quite get the hang of calling the little kid Squee. It sounded like something you'd step in or some kind of weird over-caffeinated energy drink."**_

Gaz couldn't remember the last time she got to have 3 seconds alone. Especially since they started collecting refugees. They'd converted the larger rooms into a sort of barracks. Every time someone new came along, there was a scramble for a place to find them. Gaz sometimes finds herself in the tunnels to Todd's house, sneaking into his basement just so that she could take a nap on a pile of cardboard boxes during the nights when there was a lot of activity in the house of the resistance.

Tonight was especially bad since Devi and Tenna had come back with loads of supplies. Never mind the fact that it was Gaz's tenth birthday. She didn't expect Dib to even keep track of the days even if he remembered the day she was born. Not that that sort of sentimental crap ever mattered to her before. She arranged the old hammock and drapes into a fort behind the old shell of an arcade cabinet that had been buried under the piles of junk in the old Casil house. Gaz wanted to ask Todd how it came to be here, but the boy always seemed to not want to talk. That was fine. Especially if she got to keep her little haven to herself.

Gaz tensed as she heard a sound. She frowned and grabbed the crowbar she'd taken to carry around. She crept behind the treadmill covered in clothes and readied herself to swing at...

Todd

"Squeeeeee!" cried the boy, ducking under Gaz's swing.

"Why are you here Todd?" Gaz couldn't quite get the hang of calling the little kid Squee. It sounded like something you'd step in or some kind of weird over-caffeinated energy drink.

"Dib said to get you. Tenna somehow found frozen pizzas. And um..." The boy looked down and shifted a little. Gaz tapped her foot, waiting for the kid to spit it out already.

"Oh and um... I wanted to give you this..." He held out a threadbare pillowcase. It was much heavier than it seemed and the contents clacked together as he handed it over.

"Todd... it's... batteries..." She couldn't believe it. There had to be a hundred AA batteries with various other sizes thrown in.

"I um... I know how much you miss playing your Game Slave. So um... I started collecting them a while ago. It wasn't until Dib asked Tenna find some pizza that I um... found a reason to give them to you." Todd Casil was shy, but very sweet. Gaz had never felt girly things for anyone... ever. She wasn't feeling squishy for Squee. He was short, and his eyes were way too big. And he was terrified of everything.

"Well what are you waiting for Todd. I need to slay some vampire pigs," so she didn't quite know what she was feeling for the big-eyed boy. But she didn't like him. She was Gaz, she didn't like anyone. She just wanted to be alone... right?


	3. Phase 2: Rebellion

Phase 2 - Rebellion 

_**"I am the Dark Prince's child, after all." - Pepito **_

The Earth was ravaged of nearly all of its resources and the Humans were forced into minimum-security housing and forced to build robots and ships for the coming war. There were some free humans, but they were constantly checked and identified.

Dib finally convinced the occupants of house 777 to join his rebellion. Of course, after they cleared all of the corpses out of the extensive basement, they had a lot of extra room and nothing to do. They started out small: throwing ship components off of delivery trucks; hacking into the computer system and move a few prisoners from the execution list into the minimum security housing; enlisting more humans into the resistance. 

Six years passed and the resistance grew. Their numbers grew from five to roughly one hundred. Dib figured that they could have meetings of fifty members at a time. All information was need-to-know and everyone was divided into teams of three to five people. 

Dib led the organization and infiltration teams. Gaz was in charge of hacking and alien technology. Devi handled misinformation. Tenna was in charge of morale, except her advice for cabin fever was "You need to get out more!". And Squee was in charge of intelligence.

Dib walked down into one of the deep levels of the house. He had lost three good men last night. 

Pepito, the antichrist, saw Dib and started walking with him. "I guess it didn't go as well as you planned?" Dib shook his head solemnly. "Who did we lose?"

"We lost Avi, Tar and Todd," Dib said softly. "Squee was taking a small team to find out where the high level prisoners were being held. He said that Shmee, his teddy bear told him that there are people that can help us in the highest security prisons. Of course, I don't believe that that bear actually said anything, but he did have a good idea. Maybe my father is in there, or maybe someone else with actual combat experience. We can't keep this up much longer," he confided to the Altar Boy of Doom.

Pepito shook his head, "Dib, I trust you and everything, but I highly doubt that Todd is dead. That boy has been abducted once, threatened with abduction again, he lived next to this guy for about a year." Pepito thought for a moment as they descended the next ladder. "You know, if we could find the guy that lived here, then maybe we could have a better chance at this."

"But Devi said he was dangerous and not the kind of guy you want to hang out with," Dib said and looked at his walking companion. "Oh yeah. Anyway Squee said he left town a few months before the invasion."

"I'll ask my dad about this Johnny C. later. Right now, we have a prison to bust."

"Where did you get those plans?" Dib asked, waving at the blueprints in Pepito's hand.

"I am the Dark Prince's child, after all."

*

"Okay people," Dib said as he paced the front of the room, "With these plans, we should be able to bypass any security. I'll lead the first team, which will be Gaz, Pepito and Sam."

"What's our objective?" Gaz asked, her Game Slave 2 died years ago, going out and hacking the enemy computers was her only reason to live. 

"We're going to break out several key prisoners and hopefully some important tactical information," Dib said, finally facing the twenty rebels. "We're going to find Todd and the prisoner that he went down to save."

*

Johnny looked up at the ceiling for the umpteenth time that day. Or night. He couldn't tell. He didn't even know how long he was in there. "_We sing the death song kids cause we got no future. And we wanna be just like you_," Nny sang. He propped himself against the wall so he could feel like he changed positions in the last seven hours. The happy spinal bombs didn't make things any better, he could barely move. The prisoner in the next cell was being loud. They brought him in two days ago, or was it two weeks ago. It could have been two hours ago; time was so irrelevant here.

"You can't do this to me! I AM ZIM!" the annoying creature in the next cell screamed.

"Hey! Keep it down, some of us are trying to purge ourselves of all feeling," Nny yelled and banged on the wall with the back of his head. It wasn't worth the effort or pain to move his arms.

"What? Who are you to speak to ZIM like that?"

"My name is Johnny C, but since we're being all friendly, you may call me Nny."

"_Knee_! What sort of body part are you?"

Nny sighed. Why don't people get the connection? "That's N N Y. It's short for Johnny. Why are you here?"

"I tried to save my Tallest!" Zim said proudly.

"Who or what is the Tallest?" Nny asked. He was curious and conversation made things less boring.

"The Tallest are the leaders of my people. They were taken over by those THINGS!" The creature called Zim sounded like he was pacing in the next cell. They probably didn't bother with maiming him. "They're parasites of some kind. They've taken over the entire Irken Empire. They plan to conquer the entire universe and use all beings as hosts to their evil minds! I HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!"

"That's weird. When I got here, the purple guy had this big throbby vein in his head," Nny said.

"You talked to TALLEST PURPLE?" Zim half asked, half yelled.

"Um I think so. I was caught right when they showed up. They called me dangerous. They put explody-bugs in my spine so I couldn't escape. Do you know how long it's been?"

"Six filthy earth years! I've been trying to free the Tallest for six agonizing years!"

"Six six years," Nny ignored the rest of Zim's rant and thought. Squee would be older now. He thought about the scared little boy he knew and wondered if little Squeegee made it through this mess. He may have felt something for the boy years ago, but now now he was desensitized. He was emotionless. Reverend Meat stopped talking a while ago. All hope of anything was dashed to bits after years in this dank prison.

*

Dib slipped his stolen key card into the slot on the prison door. Behind him, Gaz and Pepito were watching for guards. The door slid open and they entered the dank prison. Dib made them all memorize the plans, in case they got separated and needed to get away fast. 

"Corridor Yellow, Section X, Cell 777," Dib muttered to himself. Squee might not even be here anymore. He might be dead or they might be torturing him somewhere

Gaz silently pushed past her brother and led the way while Dib blocked the dark thoughts from his vivid imagination. Pepito took up the rear and Sam crept along beside Dib. They moved quickly and quietly down the yellow hallway, bypassing the security checkpoints as they went along.

It seemed like they had been walking for hours down the dark corridors of the prison complex. Finally Gaz stopped them in front of cell 777. She worked for a few minutes and the old doors slid open revealing an even darker closet-like room.

Lying against the wall was a tall and skeletal figure. He had long stringy hair and was apparently asleep. 

"If you're planning some daring rescue, then I think that you've got the wrong cell," he said in a rough voice.

"Who are you?" Dib asked.

"I am Johnny C, the creative force behind Happy Noodle Boy," he said, almost sadly.

"I'm Dib, this is Gaz, Sam and Pepito. We're looking for our friend, Todd Casil, do you know where they took him?"

Johnny looked up at the strangers and squinted at them in the darkness. "Squee is here?" he said quietly.

"Well," Dib started, "He came here to break out someone. We think he came after you. He said his bear told him to"

"That vile little poly-cotton demon actually told him to get me?" Johnny said. He looked as if he didn't know what to think. Then he banged his head against the wall and yelled, "Hey um Mighty Zoo! Do you know where they put the new prisoners?"

"It's ZIM! Pathetic Earth-monkey! I will make you pay for your insults!" screamed back a familiar voice.

"Zim?" Dib asked. He motioned for Gaz to go open the door to Zim's cell.

"Come on Johnny, we have to save Todd and get you and Zim out of here," Dib said.

"I can't leave well, I can, but then I would explode dying isn't very much fun," the strange man said.

Pepito knelt down beside Johnny and pushed him over none-too-gently. "I see what you mean, Nny," Pepito said.

"Hey, do I know you, you look kind of familiar," Johnny said, still facedown on the floor.

"No, but you know my father, Senior Diablo," Pepito remarked as he ripped Nny's old shirt.

"Hey yeah. What are you doing to my shirt?"

Gaz led Zim into the cell. Zim still looked exactly the same. He was the same height. He wore the same clothes. He had the same pack on his back. "Dib-monkey! How did you get here?"

Dib shrugged, "I came to bust out some prisoners. Zim, they did something to Johnny, can you help him?"

Zim took a look with wide red eyes. "Gaz," he said quietly, "Dismantle the locks on both of the cells and bring the components to me. Nny-monkey is being treated as the most dangerous kind of prisoner."

"Gee, I thought I told you that already," Nny said from the floor. "Hey are you other guys going to stand there or are you gonna save little Squeegee?"  



	4. Phase 3: Escape

Notes: I found that this story is going to be much longer than I thought, so I changed the format a bit. I couldn't stretch the Death Song to fit over the 6 or so chapters that this may end up. - Seraina

Phase 3 - Escape 

**_"Are you going to be my new sponge?"- Squee_**

Todd Casil shivered inside his dark cell. The fourteen-year-old wished that Shmee were still there with him. The bear had stopped talking a week ago. 

_Find Johnny, Todd. He can help you_, Shmee said weakly. And then it went quiet.

Squee couldn't remember the last time he felt so alone. He looked around his spooky cell again and wished that he at least had a blanket to hide under. He wondered why he had to find the scary-neighbor-man. Would Nny be able to kill the bad aliens?

Well, Nny killed a lot of humans. Squee remembered the aliens that he encountered. They were stupid and easily fooled by a child's logic. But these aliens they were cruel, cunning and really _evil_.

Squee was lost in his thoughts when he heard the door slide-screech open. And two guards stepped inside. Todd prepared for the worst, as was his habit and, "SQUEEEEEE!"

"God, Squee, give it a rest," a familiar voice said. It was Sam?

"Todd? Are you okay?" Dib asked him.

"Yeah. Did have you found Johnny?" Squee asked as Dib pulled him to his feet.

"Yeah, Gaz and Pepito are trying to help him out," Dib said, leading the small team back to cell #777. "They _did_ something to him."

Squee peered into the cell and saw his old neighbor lying facedown on the floor while Gaz, Pepito and a short green alien were hovering over the skeletal man.

*

Devi hummed to herself as she brushed her long purple hair. She didn't have anything to do tonight, except wait for the others to return. She pulled her hair into the customary pigtails and looked once more in the mirror. 

Her fingers traced the thin scar that ran above and under her right eye. 

Two years ago she was caught by the curfew patrol. Non-slave Humans were fiercely restricted in their activities and she had been doing some digging into the whereabouts of Dib and Gaz's father, Dr. Membrane. The guards let her go after a severe beating and the nasty gash. She was lucky that she didn't lose her eye. 

It was almost funny; Devi was sitting in the same room that Nny was in when he decided to kill her. It was the only room in the house with a mirror, and it was cracked in a few places. 

Her eyes wandered around the small room and to all of the posters that hung around the mirror. Movie posters and grotesque pictures were still taped to the wooden walls. Devi often thought about taking the pictures down. They were bloody and horrifying, pictures of people being tortured. But they were all artistic in their own ways. Devi was still an artist, even though she hadn't painted in years. 

*

"How much did you give him again?" Dib asked Pepito.

"Too much. I he wouldn't sleep with any less," the Altar Boy of Doom replied. Gaz and Zim were still removing the alien explosives from Nny's still form. Luckily Pepito had some morphine in the little medical kit that he always carried. 

"He he looks so I don't know How can this be the same guy that could kill that many people?" Dib asked, looking at Squee.

"He's stronger than he looks," Squee said quietly. "He used knives and other things. He always talked about "Human Defects" and things like that. That wall in the house the broken one I think he used to paint it with blood. He told me things like that," he said with a sigh.

"That's incredibly sick," Dib said.

"I think we got it all," Gaz said after she suddenly appeared beside her brother.

"How do we get him out of here?" Pepito asked. He didn't want to risk picking Johnny up without breaking him even more.

"We must find a hover cart!" Zim said, wiping his hands on his pink uniform. Then he left with Gaz and Pepito.

"I think Zim just joined us," Dib said in disbelief.

Squee just stepped over to Nny. His old "friend" must have been in tremendous pain to let them put him to sleep.

"It'll be okay, Nny. Shmee told me to find you. He knew that you would help us. Help me. Are you going to be my new sponge?" Squee asked the unconscious Nny.

*

Johnny blearily opened his eyes. Then he realized that he had been sleeping and tried to sit up. Unfortunately his body reminded him that it existed and a searing pain shot up his back. His sharp intake of breath gained the attention of a violet-haired girl. 

"He's awake," she said to someone up ahead of them. Nny once again tried to sit up and found a hand holding him down. He then realized that they were moving. He was in a van or a truck of some sort. The hand on his chest was attached to an arm covered in black. The arm belonged to an usual-looking teenager that seemed familiar. 

"Don't" Nny said hoarsely. _Don't touch me._

"Don't worry Mr. Scary-neighbor-man, we'll take you home," a soft squeaky voice said from behind him.

"Sq- Squee?" Is that you? "It's quiet" _There's no one to talk to. _

"It's me. Um Shmee said that we needed you," he said coming into Johnny's field of view.

_I'm still here, Nny_

_Nail bunny?_

_No You remember me Johnny, I'm your friend. Reverend Meat, yes?_

_Oh, it's you. I thought you left._

_There is hope for you yet. These people care about you._

_No. I don't know them. Squee he's That bear told him to find me._

_They _need _you. _They_ need _you!

"" Nny didn't realize he spoke aloud. Squee gave him a frightened look.

_Okay, if you're so smart, where are they taking me?_

_Home, my boy. They're taking you home._

"Home?" Nny said again and promptly blacked out.

*

Dib was scared to open the door. He knew that she would find out eventually. She lived there too. He glanced back at the still form on the old couch and sighed.

"Devi?" he called quietly.

She opened the door and smiled at Dib, "How did it go?"

"We got Todd back. He's in the kitchen. We also brought back a couple of others"

"Who?" she asked, stepping out of her room.

"Zim he's an Irken, but he's not infected, like the others. And the other" Dib trailed off and looked at the couch.

Devi took the hint and stepped over to the couch. Her sudden intake of breath and the surprised look on her face told Dib that she recognized Johnny.

"He was in lockup. They implanted explosives in him to make sure that he wouldn't escape Zim, Pepito and Gaz had to remove them before we left the compound. We don't know if he'll make it," Dib said solemnly. 

"Johnny?" Devi said, getting a closer look at the homicidal maniac.

What happened next happened very fast.

Johnny leapt up from the couch.

He pinned Devi against the back of the old sofa, his thin fingers curled around her neck.

He started shaking his head and then he squinted his eyes, "Devi?"

Dib didn't think anyone could move that fast. Especially after having impromptu surgery involving an electric lock and a bomb. Johnny slipped off of Devi and eased himself back onto the couch. _He must be hurting after all that._

"Hi Nny," Devi said awkwardly. Johnny didn't look at her; he looked down at the dirty floor.

"I'm well I" Johnny stuttered. Then he raked his bony hand through his long blue-black hair. There was a small scar on his forehead it almost looked like a _bullet wound_?

"If you try to kill me, I will hurt you worse than before," Devi said seriously. 

Johnny looked confused and then angry. He turned to look at her. "I said that I was sorry. I tried to forget you! I gave you my _nothing_! I apologized and all I get now is a _threat for violence_?!?"

Johnny stood up and tried to pace, but his legs failed him. He ended up leading heavily against the wall. "Don't think that I didn't fucking try to forget the pain of having my head smashed against a mirror and a desk and the floor! I fucking _DIED_ because of you! I" Johnny sank down to the floor, his hand feeling the scar on his forehead.

"I" he sobbed, "I'm so _broken_. I just," he buried his head in his hands and openly wept. "I want someone to _fix_ me."

Dib stayed speechless the whole time. He wasn't sure if such violent and abrupt mood swings were common for Johnny. Apparently Devi was thrown off as well but she at least knew hoe dangerous he could be. 

Then Squee entered the room with a bowl full of Spahgettios. 

"Squee! You remembered the Skettios!" Johnny said happily, removing himself from the corner of the room. He limped awkwardly over to Todd and took the offered bowl. Dib shook his head at the scene: a serial killer leaning on a fourteen-year-old kid eating a bowl of "Skettios" and warning Squee about the dogs.  



	5. Phase 4: Preparations

Note: Lines in _italics _is somebody talking in their head. Individual words in _italics_ mean that there's emphasis on that word. I know it can be confusing, but insanity is like that. And I don't like to make things bold unless it's in a title. Yes, I'm anal like that. Thanks to everyone that reviewed. - Seraina

Phase 4 - Preparations 

_**"I could be anyone, DibI could even be you." - Nny**_

Johnny sat on a box of nails. He was muttering to himself no. He was talking to the voices in his head. Dib sighed and Johnny turned around suddenly.

"Oh it's you. Dib. What do you want?" Johnny asked, turning back to whatever he was doing.

"Who are you?" Dib asked. He really didn't mean to ask that question. But there it was.

"I'm you know who I am. I'm Johnny C" Johnny said distractedly. He seemed to be listening to something Dib couldn't hear. And he was still toying with something Dib couldn't see.

"No. That's not what I meant. What does the C stand for?" Dib asked, stepping closer to the skeletal man.

"Oh oh. I" Nny started. "Do you remember?" he asked softly. It was as if he didn't realize that he said it aloud. Or he was talking to someone else.

"Don't you know who you are?" Dib asked. The thought that Johnny couldn't remember anything beyond being a mass murdered suddenly disturbed Dib. More than being in close proximity -and possibly annoying- said mass murderer. 

"I could be anyone, Dib," Nny said reflectively, "I could even be you."

Dib felt the shiver up his spine and repressed the urge to run screaming from the little shack that they all shared. But his curiosity won over the fear and he remembered why he came down to check on Johnny in the first place. "What are you doing?"

Johnny looked down at his hands and took in a sharp breath. "I it's a bomb," he said. He seemed surprised. It was like he wasn't aware of what he was doing. 

*

Gaz almost missed the days when she would laugh at Dib as he tried to thwart Zim's plans for world domination. It's almost funny now. 

"Is this everything?" Zim said with a disgusted look in his face.

"Yes. It's all we could get without getting caught," she replied coldly. She still didn't like him. But they had to somehow turn Tak's old ship into a bigger and more reliable mode of space transport.

Zim stopped suddenly and picked up a pile of garbage. He brushed off a small robot and smiled at it. "GIR. Where did you find him?" he asked.

"He was lodged in an escape hatch coming out of your base. We already salvaged what we could," she answered. In an odd sort of way, she liked the crazy little robot. But Gaz would never admit that out loud.

"Can you fix him?" she asked Zim suddenly.

"I I am ZIM! I can fix my own robot!"

*

Johnny huffed up the stairs from the lower levels. It was hard. He still hurt when he moved.

_Yes, it's called feeling, Nny._

_Shut up Meat. I why am I making bombs? I'm not going to blow up a café again, am I?_

_No. You'll need it for more than educational purposes. Blowing up snooty assholes is one thing. We're going to war, Nny._

_War? Are we going to blow up the aliens? Will this be like a bad Sci Fi movie? _

_No. We if the human race dies, then we die too. Can't be a figment of nothing, eh?_

"Oh. I see then," Johnny said out loud. He limped up the last of the stairs and sighed. He was hungry again and he didn't want that hyper Tenna person making him weird sandwiches.

"Hello Johnny!" Tenna screeched in his ear.

_No, don't kill her. Devi will be mad._

"Hi, Tenna," he said through clenched teeth. "Is there any food in the kitchen?" he asked.

"I don't know. Let's ask Spooky!" she said as she thrust the squeak toy in his face.

_Hello, Johnny._

"Hello"

_She gets like this all the time. There is cereal and milk left over from breakfast. And I think Pepito brought some more Spaghettios that I hear you love so much. She really means wellwhat would you like us to make?_

"Um I'll have some of those Skettios, Spooky," Johnny said to the skeleton toy.

Tenna grinned and skipped off to the kitchen to heat up Johnny's meal.

*

Gaz collapsed on the couch after a long day of working with Zim. She was covered in grease and whatever Irkens use as fuel and she was too tired to move.

"Hey, Gaz," Dib said, bringing in a bowl of cereal for his sister.

"Dib," she said, taking the bowl from his hands.

"Johnny built a big bomb today. I hope I just want everything to be back to the way it was," he said. "No, not the way it was. I want it to be better. I want everything to be better! I don't want to live in a place where people like Johnny live. Gaz, he scares me. I don't think he knows what he's doing sometimes."

"But he is insane. I mean, there has to be a reason why he does these things," she said while she chewed.

"But I don't know. How can you not remember your last name? I can't imagine all the things that he's forgotten. I- I guess I'm trying to say I'm glad that I know you Gaz. I'm glad that we got to grow up together," Dib said.

"Dib?" she asked. "What are you planning?"

"The only way that we're going to get anywhere in our mission is to destroy the Massive," he said wearily.

"Oh."

"Yeah, we're going to need Tak's ship working. And well, we'll need all the help we can get."

"I'll go with you, Dib," she said.

*

"Let me get this straight. You're going to go into space with your sister, the Antichrist, a homicidal psycho and an alien?" Devi asked.

"Yeah, that's about right," Dib said. He was preparing a list of things that they would need before their trip.

"But why? You don't have to do this we can fight them from here."

"No. No, we can't Devi. We won't get anything done if we keep at it like this. We lost four more people last night. Three more haven't reported in yet. We have to go. I have to go!"

"Dib," she said quietly, "I'm sorry. I understand, but if there's anything I can do, just tell me, okay? You're like a little brother to me. You guys are my family now," she said, pulling Dib into a hug. 

"Yeah, family. Devi?" he asked, pulling away.

"Yeah?"

"I have a really big favor to ask you."

*

"Meat?" Johnny asked the silent Bub's Burger toy.

_Yes Johnny?_

_I have a questionI meanThis is hard to ask._

_You can ask me anything, Nny._

_Do you remember what I was like before I came here?_

_Oh, Nny I don't think you would like what I had to tell you._

"I feel sick, Meat," Johnny said and limped his way to the bathroom. He promptly lost whatever was in his stomach. 

*

Devi found him hunched over the toilet, heaving what was left of his lunch. "Johnny? Are you okay?"

"That's a stupid question," he said before wiping his mouth with some toilet paper.

"Yeah, I guess it is," she said as she sat down on the bathtub. "Can I get you anything?"

"What happened to your eye?" he asked. He was sitting on the floor, his head rested against the wall. 

"I was caught by curfew patrol," she said simply. 

"Oh," he said. 

"Do you feel better now?"

"No, not really," he said, closing his eyes. His arms were wrapped around his chest in an odd hug. He looked thinner than he normally was.

"Is there anything I can do?"

_He's dying, Devi._

_Sickness?_

_He's sick. He is going to die soon. I can smell death on him._

_Shut up, Sickness!_

Johnny opened his eyes and looked at Devi. "What did you just say?"

"I asked if there was anything I could do for you?" she said, looking down at the old tile floor.

"No. After that," he said.

"I didn't say anything after that," she said, worried that Johnny could hear Sickness as well as he could hear his own voice. The voices inside his head.

_He may hear me after all. He heard the bear and the skeleton talks to him sometimes._

_Oh. _

"Johnny?"

Johnny was already heaving into the toilet again. Devi rubbed his back.

  
*

"Dib-Monkey!" came the shout that sent Dib stumbling out of bed.

"Zim? It's really early," he said, putting on his glasses. The right lens was cracked from some mission or other. But he could still see out of them if he looked around the crack. It was better than not being able to see at all.

"Dib! The ship is nearly ready! GIR is making final adjustments to the navigational computer," the Irken said proudly.

"Are you sure you want him to do that?" Dib asked.

Zim scratched his head, "By final adjustments, I mean I told him to paint the Irken symbol on the side of it."

"Oh. Okay then. This could have waited until morning."

"The Nny-Monkey he will kill the Tallest," Zim said soberly.

"Yes, I guess he would do something like that," Dib said, stifling a yawn.

"I will save the Tallest, Dib. _Nobody_ will stop me. Not you and not Nny," Zim said and left the room.  



	6. Phase 5: Questions

Phase 5: Questions 

_**"What did you use me for?"- Johnny**_

Devi wandered through the extensive labyrinth underneath the rickety shack. No one was around. But then she heard a strange scratching sound above her. She quietly retraced her steps to a room that they hardly used. It was the room with the cracked wall. The room that still smelled like blood.

Inside the room, everyone was sitting on the floor, staring at the other end of the room. Zim was even present. Tenna held onto the crazy little robot as it sat silent for the first time since Zim fixed it. 

They were all watching Johnny. 

He was in a trance of some sort. His eyes here vacant, he was swaying from side to side. In his skeletal hand, he held a yellow paint marker and was drawing on the cracked wall.

"What's going on?" she asked Squee. 

"He's drawing out coordinates, ship systems, defense mechanisms he's giving us what we need to plan the attack." The teenager looked at his old neighbor, "they're telling him everything."

"What do you mean 'they'?" she asked. But her question went unanswered. Johnny staggered back a few paces, scanned the now covered wall and promptly passed out.

Dib and Zim quickly went over the complicated calculations. To their surprise, they were all perfect. How could Johnny know all this? Devi thought. She glanced from the broken wall to the skeletal form on the floor. "Is he okay?"

Pepito bent down and checked Johnny's pulse. "I think he's just sleeping," he said.

"Spooky says that we should get him into bed and make some soup for when he wakes up. Spooky says that Nny will probably sleep for a couple of days, but he isn't sure," Tenna said, squeaking spooky a couple of times.

*

Zim and Dib worked on the complex set of numbers that Nny had given them. They furiously typed them into Dib's Earth/Irken hybrid computer. Zim shook his head and said, "How did that puny human get the secrets of the Massive so easily?"

"That didn't look easy. That looked like some psychic phenomenon. Maybe Johnny is a telepath!" Dib suggested. He was still a paranormal investigator at heart and enjoyed the thrill of discovering the unknown.

"It's not telepathy," Squee said, entering the room with sandwiches and drinks for the two.

"How do you know that, Todd?" Dib asked, taking a break from the computer. His glasses broke years ago and trying to focus on the small numbers was giving him a headache. 

"He hears voices," Squee said, sitting down on the floor. "He I think they told him to kill people, but I'm not too sure now. I think it had something to do with that wall and keeping whatever was on the other side of it away from this world."

"So, he was the keeper of that thing? Was it a good thing, or a bad thing?" Dib asked.

"Yes, I think he was supposed to keep it inside with blood. And I have a feeling that it was a very bad thing. It went away when Nny killed himself though," Squee said.

"Yeah, I suppose it would Hey wait. Kill himself? He's still alive now!" Dib cried.

"Senior Diablo, Pepito's dad, said that Nny didn't belong dead. He caused some problems in heaven and well he didn't belong in hell either."

"But how?" Dib squeaked.

"Johnny shot himself in the head. I I heard it from my room. He never used guns not on anyone else," Squee whispered quietly.

"Squee-human!" Zim suddenly shouted, "There is much to do! Stop you're squeakyness and leave the Dib-monkey alone!" Zim yelled. Dib knew that he was curious too, but their work was much more important that Johnny's schizophrenic tendencies. 

*

Johnny woke up in a bed. He couldn't remember if he was the one that owned the bed, or if the others brought it in later. He sighed as he tried to reconnect himself to reality once more. 

He looked over the dark little room to find Devi sleeping in a chair. _A week ago she threatened me if I came within six feet of her, but now she's willing to fall asleep in my presence? I don't understand that woman._

_Not even _I _understand that woman_, a tired voice whispered in his head.

"I don't remember you before are you one of mine?" Johnny asked hesitantly.

_No. I am Sickness. But don't worry, Devi isn't under my influence She destroyed my plans before they were ready._

"Okay what're you doing in my head?" he asked.

_I just wanted to meet the infamous Johnny, that's all._

_Shut up Sickness. Leave the boy alone! Reverend meat shouted._

"Hey, quit fighting in my head," Johnny said, putting his hands on his temples.

_This little failure was one of the Doughboys' friends. But Devi woke up too soon and trapped Sickness inside her head_, Meat said calmly.

"Hey, why can I hear everyone else's voices too?" Johnny asked the little Bub's Burger Boy.

_They stole too much of you, Johnny_, Sickness hissed.

_**STAY AWAY FROM HIM!**_ Meat shouted. Johnny thought his head was going to explode. Meat rarely got so angry.

"Meat?" Johnny whispered. The pain in his head doubled from the outburst, but the horrible whispering of Sickness stopped.

_I'm here, Johnny. She won't bother you again. At least, not while I'm around_, Meat said.

Johnny would have questioned his persistent plastic figment, but Tenna bounced into the room carrying a tray of soup.

"Morning sleepy-head!" Tenna chirped happily.

"Yeah morning" Nny mumbled, staring at the chicken soup.

"You were asleep for two days!" she added and bounced over to Devi.

_Two days?_ He asked Meat.

_Yes your mission needed some exact figures and wellI had to borrow you for a bit. Don't get all bent out of shape about it, I won't be doing that again._

"What did you use me for?" he asked his figment, but the toy remained silent.

*

"Three days. We have three days to get ready for the single most important fight of our lives?" Gaz asked her brother.

"Well, according to the data on the wall we have to hit in three days. They're getting shipments from the surface, so one more ship won't matter!" Dib said excitedly.

"Will we really be ready in time? It seems surreal that we can actually beat this thing," Gaz said.

"Yeah, I hate to say this, but we couldn't have gotten this far without Zim. To think that I wanted to give him to the government all those years ago," Dib said.

"So," Zim said uncharacteristically quiet, "You don't hate me anymore, Dib-human?"

"Well no Zim. I can't bring myself to. I mean, compared to whatever is controlling the Irkens, I see that you were the lesser of two evils" Dib said, turning toward the short alien, "Hell, Zim, you're not even evil."

*

Squee walked past the bathroom and looked through the partially opened door. He saw Johnny heaving into the toilet again. He sighed and tried to put that from his mind. But the more time that passed, the more he couldn't help but wonder what's wrong with his Friend? Yes, Johnny was his friend. For a while, the maniac was his only friend.

The part of his mind (that sounded like an old teddy bear) thought that Johnny was a "horrible waste of potential". But Squee figured there was more to it than that. He remembered reading an old health manual once. He had gotten the flu really bad and his parents didn't care enough to help him. After he got better, he went out and got a big medical book. He remembered that severe weight loss and an almost constant vomiting weren't symptoms of a common flu virus.

The teenager promised himself that he'd look for the book later, when all of the preparations for the mission were finished.

*

Pepito lay upside-down on the couch, his feet flung over the back and his head hanging off the cushions. He just came back from Hell, where he asked his father if they were doing the right thing. His father just gave him that "I can't tell you anything" look.

But they did discuss the role of the "waste-lock" and the "flusher". The concept seemed simple enough, but the reason wasn't coming to the antichrist. Johnny had killed himself. The universe reset itself. Johnny was returned to the living world. Johnny was captured.

If Johnny were still a flusher, then he wouldn't have been caught. But he was. 

If Johnny was being motivated by an outside force, or forces as he thought that the mentally deranged man often contradicted himself, then something wanted him to reset reality.

But what could have captured him except the force that was controlling him?

Maybe these aliens were far more influential than he originally thought.

Pepito sighed and rolled to his feet. If he was going to puzzle this out, then he needed some serious caffeine. Tenna always had a pot of coffee going. The Altar Boy of Doom smiled to himself at the thought of Tenna's "Choclate Mint Coffee" and made his way to the tiny kitchen.  



	7. Phase 6: Battle

Authors notes: Lines in Italics are either internal conversations or memories. Italic Bold lines are quotes. There are several quotes from the JTHM comics near the end of this chapter. This is almost over... only a little more to go. - Seraina

Phase 6: Battle 

_**"NnyI'm sorry."- Reverend Meat**_

Johnny took several deep breaths to calm himself down. He was sitting in a rickety ship not much bigger than his little car with an alien, a teenager obsessed with destroying the aliens responsible for the enslavement of his race, his sister bent on destroying anything and the antichrist, who had just given him an antacid to calm his raging bile duct.

Zim and Gaz were piloting and Dib was sitting ready with the bomb. The bomb was big enough to take out the ship's core, but not so big as to send the ship crashing into the Earth's surface. All they had to do was get the bomb into the core and Johnny would take care of the aliens. Though Zim was adamant on sticking close to Nny, Dib convinced him to lead them to the engine room instead.

Pepito was Johnny's support. If for some reason, Nny got too ill to carry out the plan, Pepito was going to explode some heads, therefore killing all the Irkens on board. It was messy, but it was the only back up plan they had. And the antichrist also was carrying the drugs that were keeping the homicidal maniac upright. Normally, he would balk at such liberal taking of medicine, but the ache in his head, the damage to his back and the terrible nausea was almost too much for him to handle on his own.

"We're entering docking bay 2," Zim said calmly. Zim landed Tak's ship and they started their diversion: GIR sprung from the back of the ship and started dismantling anything and everything that he could get his little metal hands on.

Pepito dragged Johnny down one corridor while Dib and Gaz followed Zim down another carrying the large bomb. GIR was distracting the technicians nicely. Johnny was about to ask the Altar Buy of Doom where exactly they were going when suddenly, they were surrounded by infected Irken soldiers. Johnny whirled around only to find that there was no escape. He felt Pepito slip something into his hand.

It was a syringe of morphine.

"What?" Johnny tried to ask, but he instead slipped the capped syringe into his tall boot. But the teenaged son of the devil clenched his fists and let out a violent roar as a series of Irken heads exploded. Johnny didn't need to be told, he ran as fast as his legs would carry him. He ran until he stopped in front of a door marked "Bridge". Nny grinned to himself and opened the panel that unlocked the door.

The two aliens that had captured him all those years ago stood waiting for him.

"Hello Johnny C. Welcome back," Purple said.

*

Dib and Gaz nearly dropped the precious case they carried between them when Zim suddenly skidded to a stop. Dib opened his mouth to berate his former rival, but the scene in front of him told him everything he needed to know. The metal door slamming closed behind them just confirmed their fate. Slowly, Dib and Gaz set the bomb on the ground and drew their weapons.

The corridor in front of them was packed with Irken soldiers. Behind them was a dead end. There was only one way to get to their destination was to go through the platoon of angry aliens. Zim detracted his spider legs and pulled out a laser weapon. Dib and Gaz flanked him and with an unspoken signal, the three charged into the melee. 

*  
Pepito reached the door to the Bridge and found that Johnny was already inside and his communicator started to flash. The three flash signal meant that they were in deep shit. Johnny would have to wait, if the Irkens killed Dib and Gaz

Pepito ran down corridors. He retraced his path back to where they split up, dodging the bodies of the fallen soldiers. He didn't have time. 

*

"Some of our kind have penetrated the veil behind the flesh," Red said. "To use your words, Johnny C."

Johnny stared at him dumbfounded. These aliens weren't making much sense. He tried asking Reverend Meat for his opinion, but the voice was silent.

"Tell me, Johnny, do you think of yourself as a healthy example of a human being?" The alien said.

"Well I um" Johnny stuttered at the unusual question. He felt okay, except for the voices in his head and the damage that his captor inflicted on him.

"You don't remember the hospital, do you?" the red alien asked, leaning very close to Johnny's face.

Hospital? I don't

_**"I never should have left my room my room out there, I almost remember it"**_

_"Hey, how do you feel today? You're too skinny. If you gained weight, then they'd let me take you home with me."_

_**"You don't remember the pretty girl that gave me to you? Being in her room? Doing what you did? What she did to you?"**_

_"Johnny! Shouldn't you be at the hospital?" _

_"I wanted to see you. I there's nothing they can do anymore. I just want to be with you."_

_"I have something for you, I was going to take it to you later. It's from all the guys at Bub's. They miss you down there."_

I who? 

_**"You still did ghoulish things, but for slightly different reasons."**_

_"Johnny you're covered in blood I please don't do this."_

_"I I'm so tired. I just want to"_

_"Want to what Nny? What do you want?"_

_"I want to go over the stars. I'll wait for you"_

_"Give me the knife Johnny... Please?"_

_**"Waking means that I've slept and sleep dissolves what certainty I have left."**_

_"I don't want to go to sleep. I might not be here when I wake up. I might not wake up."_

I don't want to. Please no

"Johnny? Have we remembered? You were supposed to die a long time ago. But some of my brethren thought that you would be more useful as a 'waste lock'. The creature in your wall was my ancestor's original form," Red said, finally breaking eye contact with Johnny.

Johnny held his head as memories flooded his mind. He remembered his mother dying in a car accident. Before she died she told him that she'd wait for him over the stars. He remembered being made fun of in school for being too thin. He remembered meeting her. 

Then he remembered the day that the doctors told him that he was going to die. He remembered the long stays in the hospital. He remembered cutting himself to try to escape the pain. He remembered leaving the hospital to see her. He remembered going out for a drive before she took him back. He remembered being jumped by those muggers.

He remembered vomiting blood.

He remembered the guys turning to her.

He remembered them hurting her. Touching her.

He remembered being too weak to do anything.

"No!" Johnny cried, tears streaming down his face. It was painful, the things he blocked out. There were reasons that he didn't want to remember.

"Yes, Johnny. You should have died then. But you were kept alive so that we could live as we once were. Powerful. Unstoppable. Unburdened by the need for another!" Red was shouting.

"But those traitors, the ones called Nail Bunny and Reverend Meat," Purple spat, "they thought that we could live along side the human race. That humans would share their minds with us!"

"The Fools! Our nature is not to 'share'! The universe is ours to command! All of creation will bow before us!" Red shouted. Johnny thought that his head would burst from the flow of memories. Memories not only of his past, but also of the aliens' past as well. How they conquered and eventually started to die off. He saw their flight from this plane of existence. He watched Bunny and Meat's treason. He watched himself spiral into oblivion. And he knew that Meat was losing power. He knew exactly what "Red" and "Purple" were planning. He knew that once they fell, the whole infested Irken army would die out. Red was the queen, if she died, then the whole race would die. 

Johnny felt that his whole life led him to this point. He was kept alive to destroy these people. It was his purpose to save the universe. 

Johnny pulled himself into a crouch as Purple turned his back to check the progress of the Irken soldiers that went after Dib and the rebels. Red dismissed Johnny as helpless and went to watch the show.

Johnny reached deep inside his boot for the syringe of morphine Pepito slipped him earlier. He uncapped the needle and silently climbed to his feet. He was hurting and shaky, but he knew that he had to do this. Or Dib and Zim and the others would die. Everyone would die. And Johnny was sick of people dying.

With a newfound balance, Nny ran and leapt onto Red's shoulders. Purple was paralyzed with shock and didn't make a move. Johnny stabbed the sharp needle into the throbbing vein in the alien's forehead and pushed the plunger in all the way. 

Purple let out a horrible agonizing shriek and collapsed on the ground. Purple and the technician at the control panel followed suit a second later. Johnny would have laughed if the exploding pain in his head hadn't left him gasping for breath. The fact that Red had landed on him didn't help either. It was very quiet in his head.

"Meat?" Johnny asked the little burger-wielding statue.

_YesNny?_

"What happened to her?" he asked from his position on the floor.

_Why do you want to know? You can't remember her name._

"Please I want to know. I don't remember everything but but I want to," he pleaded. 

_Her name was Sarah. She wanted to be a doctor. She wanted to help people like you._ Meat sounded as tired as Nny felt.

"People like me?" Johnny was confused.

_You were dying. The biggest misconception here is the fact that you were horrendously insane before we got to you._

"I wasn't?" Johnny couldn't imagine not being insane. The concept was new and scary.

_No You were terminal. You knewthat you were going to die you cut yourself a lot. You nearly killed a man for well that's not important now._

"What happened to her, where is she now?" he asked, sitting up and leaning against the wall.

_She isn't dead, if that's what you're thinking. In fact, she was quite willing to stay with you until the very end._

"Well?" he prompted impatiently.

_You didn't want her to watch you suffer like that. She went through too much in her life to have to watch you die._ Meat was growing weaker, his voice was getting softer he was fading fast.

"Where is she now?"

_She's a doctor now. She has a family. Two kids. She thinks that you died._

"I suppose that she would," Nny said. He wrapped his arms around himself, "Why do I feel like this Meat?"

_It took all four of us to keep you alive. Nailbunny used up his power keeping the doughboys from stealing your soul. I was repressed Johnny I'm not strong enough to keep your disease repressed._

"Oh I figured it was something like that." Johnny curled himself into a little ball on the dirty floor of the Massive.

_Nny?_

"Yeah Meat?" 

_I'm sorry._  



	8. Phase 7: Reconstruction

Phase 7: Reconstruction

_**"They're leaving, Devi. We won." - Dib**_

After the horrible resounding shriek of every dying parasite faded, Dib surveyed their surroundings. Most of the Irkens around them were passed out from the instant death of the parasitic aliens. But many were dead. It was difficult to tell the two categories apart. 

Once Pepito arrived, the battle was easier. The antichrist kept the Irken fire from actually hitting them by using another one of his spooky evil powers. 

Once they deemed that the danger was over and they no longer needed to blow the core of the ship, they hurried to the bridge to check on Johnny.

That's where they found him. Johnny was curled up on the floor; an old Bub's Burger Boy toy was lying near his head. Dib bent down to check on Johnny.

But Johnny wasn't breathing.

Dib ran from the room, his tears streaking from behind his glasses. "Help! Pepito! Gaz!" Dib screamed.

"What's wrong, Dib?" Gaz asked.

"It's Johnny. He's he"

*

Zim helped his leaders off of the floor and back into their command chairs. Red blinked and put a hand to the bleeding gash on his forehead. Purple blinked down at Zim for a minute and tried to think of the correct etiquette for the situation.

"My Tallest," Zim said bowing to his leaders, "Are you okay now?"

"Zim?" Purple asked.

"Yes, it is I, Zim," said the small Irken.

"You're so very small, Zim," Red said tiredly.

Zim dropped his head and nodded.

"Zim you and these Earth monkeys rescued us," Red said.

"Yes, my Tallest," Zim replied.

"As a reward for your heroism, Zim, I'm promoting you from Invader to ambassador. You're the new Irken ambassador to Earth. Congratulations!" Red said, winking at Purple. 

Zim stood as tall as he could and saluted his leaders, happily accepting his new assignment. GIR then decided to jump on his head and stuff a rather large piece of cake in his mouth.

"Hey! Where did that tall guy go?" Purple asked, indicating Johnny.

The Irkens looked over to the skeletal man on the floor and Dib looked up. He shook his head and draped his coat over their fallen friend.

*

Devi paced the living room in the old shack. She had been a nervous wreck since Dib and the others left that morning. Tenna was oddly quiet and had been looking at Spooky for the last hour. Squee started cooking dinner so that when the other got back, they could eat. 

The sudden noise of a ship landing shook the rickety house. Devi ran to the boarded up window and peered through the crack.

Dib, Pepito and Gaz were pulling a hover cart with a covered form on it. Zim was waving at the ship as it took off in the sky. The wind picked up and blew the cover off the hover cart.

Devi ran out the door and saw Johnny's peaceful form lying on the cart. Dib's coat covering him. 

He must've gotten sick on the ship, she thought.

But when they came closer, she saw the solemn look on their faces. 

When they reached the door, she could see Nny's ashen face and blue lips. Johnny was dead.

"H-how?" Devi stuttered.

"He just died," Dib said.

"Whatever illness he had it must've caught up with him. Maybe somewhere we can find something, but I doubt it. It's like Johnny never existed," Gaz said.

"They're leaving, Devi. We won. Zim is staying as Ambassador and they promised that they wouldn't touch Earth ever," Dib said.

"Why did they just let us go like that?" She asked.

"Johnny killed the parasite's queen. The rest of them must've been linked to her they all died shortly after. Irkens associate height with power. Johnny is was as tall as Tallest Red. They respected that," Zim filled in, clutching a case in his arms.

"What's that Zim?" Pepito asked.

"Surveillance and data tapes from the bridge of the Massive. I thought the rest of you wanted to see what happened," he said.

Devi and the others stood quietly at the threshold of shack #777. The odd funeral procession went inside and the heroes of the day mourned.

_Is it right to mourn the passing of a homicidal maniac?_ Devi thought.

Johnny saved the Earth. He did it. 

He isn't the same man that killed all those people.

Johnny died a hero. 

_I hope he finds his answers._

*

Dear Diary,

I went over the stars today. It was different than the last time. I didn't get to sit in a chair in heaven. I didn't get to go to hell with the stupid assholes. I just went over. This really nice lady smiled at me and hugged me. She said that she missed me. I told her that I didn't remember her. She said that was okay.

I think that I'm finally happy.

I think that everything's going to be okay for once.

  
*

END  



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